Prepping A Room Before Residential Painting Part 2

 In Painting

Prepping A Room Before Residential Painting Part 1

Wall Preparation

 

Now its time to surface Prep the walls. Probably the most common situation you will be dealing with is Drywall however I know that some of you may have plaster walls regardless, every situation is a little bit different but since drywall is going to be the most relatable and common to all of you, I’m going to assume we’re dealing with that. You’re going to have to inspect the walls for holes, cracks, dings, dents and dirt/grease. Starting with cleaning the dirt or grease, if this is not a new construction space and you’ve already had things up on the walls, dirt often gets trapped behind them, take care of it by using a spray bottle filled with warm water and about 2 tablespoons of a gentle detergent.  Failing to remove dirt or grease before painting will make it difficult for the paint to bond to the wall and will soon fail by bubbling or sagging. 

Wall Repair

Now it’s time to start repairing wall imperfections, you want to go through and fill any of those holes before painting if you were to just paint it as it is you’ll not only still see the imperfections but they may be even more highlighted then before. If you have a larger hole or a deeper gash you might need to use a joint compound. There are plenty of step-by-step videos you can find online that can help with a proper technique addressing that issue or I suggest hiring a professional. 

Types of damage

There are two main types of imperfections; traditional nail holes or just dings in the wall that and paint failures like loose or peeling a paint chip. I recommend a speed dry patch plus primer spackle the reason I like this is that it dries in 30 minutes and it doesn’t have a lot of shrinkages so it’s going to stay the same size and it’s super easy to work with it, really hides imperfections.  When the wall damaged area has its edges raised up and sticking out you’re going want to use the back of a putty knife or a small hammer and press the edges into the hole, basically making an indent, you want all the imperfections to be on the inside of the wall nothing raised on the outside. After that load up the corner of putty knife with spackle about half a teaspoon amount will work for your average size nail hole.  Press the putty into the wall and then smooth it out with a couple passes with your putty knife, the first pass your going to do a soft diagonal and then one perpendicular to your first pass so that you eliminate air pockets and the spackle has a lot of contact with the wall. By using quick-dry these fixes will be ready to sand and paint in 30 minutes.

 

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